Practice lived spaces in the nursing undergraduate program of the Escuela Nacional de Enfermería y Obstetricia-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: The formal curriculum presented in the study plans is in tension with the perspective of the curriculum as a group of experiences, called lived curriculum or curriculum as practice.

Objective: To present an approach to the daily experiences that occur in each of the spaces of the formative process of the students in the last semester of the nursing undergraduate program.

Methods: Qualitative descriptive study based on collective interviews of 2 focus groups with a total of 16 students in their 8 th semester of the nursing undergraduate program. The interviews were performed with a semi-structured guide, and with informed consent. A content analysis was performed following the Strauss, Corbin, and De Souza technique. Three principal categories were generated, and this study will show one of them.

Results: From the analysis, the category named “lived spaces of the practice” was selected, including its sub-categories a) Living the nursing in the classroom; b) Living the nursing in the hospital; and c) Living the nursing beyond the hospital.

Discussion and conclusions: The regular experiences of the student are made up of academic activities as well as the everyday ones, as regards living in a classroom, laboratory, hospital, or beyond. These are spaces of development, experiences and emotions which strengthen the students day by day. Thus, care learning is achieved through experience, which at the same time is a special living and links complex relationships which feed it. The scholastic culture helps interiorize representations, beliefs, preferences, ideologies, which all together form the knowledge culture expressed in the real or lived curriculum.